Red vs Blue: Rookie's Story
by Rise-Of-Ruin
Summary: A young woman with a mysterious past, self-named 'Rookie' is sent to the Blue Team in Blood Gulch Canyon the day of Caboose's arrival. This is a retelling of the series through the eyes of Rookie. No parings, this is mainly an action/adventure series. Will try to keep as close to the original Red vs Blue script as I can, changed to M rated due to language.
1. Rudiment

She was walking down a dark, cold metal passage. Strange alien words were glowed from walls like futuristic hieroglyphics. At the end of the tunnel, she came to a large rounded door, thick and constantly rotating in its center. She touched one of the glowing symbols located to the far right of the door, it immediately rolled to one side into the wall. In the room beyond, there was a massive stream of pure, blinding light that stretched up from the ground to the impossibly high ceiling. Stepping into the room, she turned to look at the many levitating platforms and walkways that ceaselessly rotated and moved around it.

Lifting one armored hand, the young human signaled to those who occupied the platforms. As it lowered to her level, the being that stepped from it was definably not a human, nor did it resemble a human in anyway.

It stood several feet taller than her, with a hunched posture, long neck and arms that came down to clawed hands. Its head looked more like it belonged in some prehistoric time. When it spoke, it was a series of growls of some ancient language.

" _Ferewn nur-ah, treaqua. Doscesh vishhiler?"_

The young human answered back in the alien language.

" _Ferewn nur-ah, jykier. Lerpan-qua gruver."_

" _Grusha-lar newara Zuelseh?"_

The human then turned to the light.

The young woman gasped and started out of the dream. Looking around with wide eyes, she found herself looking at the interior of a small drop ship. She was sitting strapped in a seat while the rest remained vacant, all except for two.

There was a large, tough looking soldier in gray armor siting near the front. And directly across from the girl was a man in blue armor looking right at her.

"Hello!" he chirped in a friendly manner, "I'm Caboose."

"H-he-hello…" the girl said awkwardly, still groggy from the dream' she thought. "I'm-"

"Hey rookie! Be quiet back there!" the tough looking guard shouted at her.

The girl was instantly silenced. Caboose shook his head at the man, "ignore him," he whispered. "He's mean."

"Yeah," she whispered back, "they all are."

In spite of her ability to somehow have a normal conversation, Rookie was an unusual case.

Some weeks back, she had awoken in the recruitment center, where people were gathered around to take some test to get into military training. She assumed she must have been there for the same thing but had absolutely no memory of how she got there or who she even was.

Instead of helping, staff quickly her ushered into a large room with chairs and long desks. She was made to write down answers on a thick paper packet. In a bit of a stunned state, she accepted the reality of things and wrote down the answers to the best of her ability. It took a little over 2 hours to finish, it would have taken a lot less if her hand didn't start cramping up all the time. Looking around, she noticed that everyone else was still taking the test.

Then she looked down at top front page and felt her heart drop.

 _Name:__

She didn't know her own name! Now she was going to fail.

Sighing quietly, she decided that she would fake a name; hopefully they would buy it and let her in.

She began to ponder a good name and scribble a few good ones on a piece of scrap paper. Only to find that her pen had run out of ink.

Glancing up, she noticed that the guy next to her had several extra pens. Despite a sense of pride that would have forbidden her from asking for help from anyone, she knew needed it.

She was partway in asking him if he would share one of his pens for a short while when one of the guards shouted at her.

"Hey you Rookie!"

The girl looked up, "No talking!" he shouted.

The girl quickly took one of the pens and scribbled down her new name.

After the two were unceremoniously dumped at the blue base, Rookie attached her sapphire blue helmet to her full body suit of matching color. Looking though her yellow visor, she took in the view. A big box canyon, with high, dirt colored walls and a small valley with sparse dried grass. On either end, less than a few hundred years, were the red and blue bases.

She and Caboose were sent to stay on the blue base, being that their poor leader died from a heart attack in his sleep.

"Hey rookies!" A new voice called out.

Both newbies turned. Standing on their small base was a teal and light azure soldier watching them.

The azure blue one spoke, "Ok, newbies, first off, before you settling here, we need to clarify some things."

Caboose and Rookie stole a glance at each other before returning their attention to the man.

"First off, I'm Leonard Church, but to you, it's Church and I'm the leader here. And don't any of you numbnuts forget it!"

"Yeah!" the teal one shouted much more enthusiastically, "and I'm Tucker, second in command and master ladies' man!" Tuck then proceeded to make his weird little catchphrase of 'Bow chika bow wow!'

"Anyway," Church said ignoring Tucker, "who the hell are you?" he glared down at the duo.

"I'm Caboose." The blue one said happily, glad to be noticed.

"I'm Rookie."

Immediately, both soldiers attention were on her. "What the hell? They sent us a girl? Sweet!" Tucker shouted in excitement.

"Shut up Tucker!" Church yelled in irritation, "get those rookies in the base and meet out in front, we're gonna inspect the new tank."

And with that Church disappeared out of sight. Tucker turned back to them, "Don't worry babe, you can totally buck with me."

Rookie felt herself cringe inside.

Unknown to the blue base, a pair of red were watching them through a sniper scope atop the high cliffs that surrounded them.

"This can't be good." A maroon colored soldier muttered zooming the sight in on the new comers, "The Blues got some new recruits."

He sifted his gun to the right, "and a tank! Sarge is not gonna like this." He whined.

"Ok I get it." An orange armored man moaned, "Blues got some rookies who cares? I'm tired and I wanna go back to base."

The other turned to him, "Grif this is serious! Besides, you slept in till 2:00pm this evening."

"And that's not nearly enough for me! I need another 5 hour power nap at least. You know I can't function without a 6 course meal and an entire days rest in me Simmons."

Simmons put down the gun, "Whatever; just shut up and get back to the red base, Sarge needs to hear this." He finished as he ran past his orange companion.

"By the way," Grif asked, "aren't we getting a rookie?"


	2. Rough Start

"…So I say to the guy; 'how are you going to get the tank down to the place?' and he goes 'I'll just put it on the ship'…"

Rookie and Caboose had finally settled into their new 'home'. Rookie fortunately did not have to share a room with the perverted Tucker, she found some empty ones that were supposed to be for storage, not that the blue team had anything to store anyway. Both the rookies got their own rooms.

After they moved in to their new living spaces, they regrouped outside. Rookie was the last to arrive and found her new team standing back to admire the slate gray tank their drop ship had also delivered to the team. She walked up just as Caboose was finishing his epic tale.

"-So I go, 'if you got a ship that can carry a tank, why not just put guns on the ship and use it instead?'"

"Hey kid." Tucker said suddenly.

"Yeah?"

"You're ruining the moment. Shut up."

"Oh, uh ok. You got it man-"

"What moment? Rookie asked as she came to stand in-between them. "It's a tank, there's no way the Reds can compete with this. It doesn't need a moment."

"It's its own moment." Caboose whispered in awe.

Church didn't appear to have heard at all, "you know," he said not taking his gaze away from their prize, "I can blow up the whole goddamn world with this thing."

There was another long pause, this time broken by Rookie. "I haven't even been here for a day and I'm already questioning the sanity of this team."

Again she was ignored.

"You know what?" said Tucker, "Forget what I said before, we can definably pick up chicks in this thing, probably 2 or 3 chicks apiece. Hey Rookie."

Rookie turned to him.

"What do you say, wanna go for a ride with me? Wink, wink."

Rookie slowly backed away until she was in the safety of the base.

"Ah man, listen to you," Church sneered, "What you are going to do with 2 chicks?"

Instead of continuing to listen to the rest of her comrades' conversation, Rookie opted to go 'explore' the rest of their base. Bedsides the living spaces, there were only a few other rooms. A kitchen, the basement where they kept some sort of teleporter that led who knows where, and slightly larger room in the center of the base that was meant for holding a blue flag. All the rooms were tiny with either one or no windows or any other kind of decoration or furnisher. She quickly became bored. This made her realize how little there was to do in this place, since there has been no activity from the Reds, all they could so now was wonder around the base and the tiny area around them. Wandering too far, however, meant straying into 'uncharted' territory, meaning one could be spotted by the Reds and sniped.

The sapphire blue soldier wandered around the rooms a few times, avoiding going into Tucker's and Church's bedrooms, for the sake of her virgin eyes. However, the more she looked around, the more she was filled if disgust. Did anyone here even know how to clean or use a damn broom? The entire base was filthy. Anything that could be rusted was rusted, mounds of dust were heaped the corners, and apparently, no one knew the difference between a washed dish and a dirty one and thought the floor was a perfect substitute for a garbage can. She headed back outside, pondering the best way she can convince her team mates to let her dump bleach over every square inch of the base for the sake of properly sterilizing it before taking a sponge to the grime.

"I'm not going to get married. My dad said, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free."

"Hey rookie, did you just call my girlfriend a cow?"

"No I think he called her a-"

"I never said that!" Rookie shouted as she walked up to the three. "I'm not an agamist!"

"Not you, him!" Church said pointing to Caboose.

"Eagle mist?" Caboose said in confusion.

"Why do I always walk in on the most awkward parts of the conversations?" Rookie mumbled to herself.

"Listen," Church started, "I can spend the entire day listening to you two rookies, but I have a more important job for you."

"You want us to watch the flag," Rookie cut in, "Actually; I'm on, uh, kitchen *coughbasecough* cleaning duty." Let the other rookie take on the meaningless chore, she had work to do if she wanted to live there comfortably.

She ducked back into the base and went to find a study broom and heavy duty bleach. Passing by the door again, she can hear Caboose stepping out.

"Uh, Mr. Church?"

"Oh my god WHAT!?"

Poor Caboose, she thought. When I'm done here; I'll make him something. Actually, I might as well make everyone dinner.

She opened the fridge, decorated with long-dried muddy handprints to get an idea of what she would make later. Inside it was packed with cheap, half empty beer cans and bottles, moldy vegetables and spoiled liquids that have turned a grayish color. A black mold was beginning to spread out from what used to be milk. Rookie was glad her helmet was still on, as she was certain the smell from there would have made her retch. Although the sheer sight of it almost made her do so.

"…This is going to be a long, LONG, war…"

"Hey, just want to let you know, the general sopped by and picked up the flag."

"Yeah, ok, whatever, moron." Church shouted back with a complete lack of interest.

Rookie, spotted in dust and carrying heavy garbage bags reeking of bleach, poked her head out, "What did Caboose say?"

"I said the general came and took the flag." Caboose said as he walked passed her and went for the kitchen.

"Oh ok, cool. Wow, that was quick. I didn't even see him come in or leave." She continued on her way to dump the garbage in the incinerator in the basement.

Church then went back to what he was doing, "why would they give us a tank if nobody here knows how to drive the damn thing….wait a second. What did he just say?"


	3. Reckless

The next hour.

"Let me get this straight, you gave this guy our flag?" Church was bust interrogating the newcomer while Tucker scanned the area with this rifle sight. Rookie stood anxious behind them.

"Is that bad?" Caboose asked.

"Bad? Oh no, that's not bad, next time he comes over, why not just help him blow the whole god damn ba-"

"Hey! It's not his fault. You're the one who told him to wait for a general that never existed in the first place!" Rookie yelled in Caboose's defense. Church was about to give her a nasty retort when Tucker suddenly called out. "There! There he is!"

Church immediately lifted the sniper rifle and peered through the sight, "where?" And then spotted him, "Oh yeah, oh I got him. He's sneaking around back by the cliffs."

"He must be one smart Sonnva bitch." Tucker said with a hit of admiration.

Rookie also peeked through her gun's sight and noticed the red man pausing, looking around, and backtracking constantly like a person who's unsure of where to go. "Uh, guys? I think he's more lost than anything else."

"How can you even see that far with a normal gun?" Tucker asked.

"I got an advance scope for it." She said patting the rifle.

"Oh shit." Church suddenly moaned, "Guys, look at his armor. It's red."

"Oh man, that means it's their sergeant."

"Well, that makes sense. At least now we know how he got by our defenses."

"Uh you know," Caboose piped up, "he came in the back door where you guys were standing."

"Yeah something about not being able to drive that tank I recall." Rookie added.

"Well why weren't you watching it?" Church demanded.

"You never told me to and I was busy cleaning up your mess inside the Base!"

"Yeah ok, let's take him out then." Tucker quickly said, wanting to change the subject.

"Rodger that." Church lifted the sniper and zoomed in closer.

"Ok, say good night Sarge."

But as many rounds as the Blue leader fired off at the red figure, each shot missed their mark completely.

"Ah crap." He turned and noticed Rookie and Tucker staring at him.

"What?"

"You're really not very good with that thing are you?" Tucker was trying hard to hold back a giggle.

"Unless you were trying to hit the air around him, then it was pretty good aim." Rookie was unable to keep the giggle out of her voice.

"Shut up!"

Rookie looked back at 'Sarge' and saw him running back and forth waving the flag, shouting something that they could not hear. "…What's he doing now?"

"Great, now he's taunting us. That's just embarrassing."

"Alright, that's it! "I've had it." Church snapped and turned to the new comers, "rookie," he made sure to point at Caboose. "You stay here, me, Tucker and this rookie will head to the teleporter. We'll cut him off at the pass."

"Right!" Caboose acknowledged.

"We have a pass?" Rookie asked.

"There is no way I'm going through that thing."

"Tucker we don't have time for this. Why would they give us a teleporter if it doesn't work?"

"I don't know!" "Why would they give us a tank that no one can drive?"

"Actually," Rookie butted in, "think all tanks come a built in tutori-"

"We already tested the teleporter remember?" Church said cutting her off.

"We threw rocks through it!"

"Yeah and? So what? The rocks came out the other side didn't they?"

"Yeah, but they were all hot and covered in black stuff."

Rookie glanced between her leader and comrade as they argued, then looked back at the red team member that was getting further and further away. "…I think I'll lead the Calvary for this one."

Before anyone could stop her, she hopped down and began running at an amazing speed toward the small red figure in the distance. "Meet you there to back you up!" She called back. The rest of the group watched her in awe.

"Well, it's good to know that someone is willing to go the extra mile for this team." Church mused.

"I'm certain she can run that mile and back before this teleporter works properly."

"Freeze!" Rookie shouted, as she closed in on the red soldier. "Huh?" The man turned and found himself staring down the barrel of a very large and unusual gun. Rookie was confused as to why neither Tucker nor Church came out of the teleported yet, but figured that they were still arguing back at base. It would be up to her now to recover what had been stolen.

"Can it tomato paste! You were either really good or really lucky to come to our base alone and get this far with our flag, Sarge," Rookie growled. "But this is as far as you'll ever get, now hand it over and maybe I'll go easy on you and let you limp back to your base old man."

"Sarge?" the soldier asked, seemingly forgetting about the gun in his face. Rookie was taken aback by how young he sounded, didn't Tucker say he was old and talked like a grumpy pirate? "I'm not the Sargent and I'm not old, I'm Private Donut at red base, I just got here 2 hours ago."

"What?" Rookie lowered her gun, now noticing that this guy didn't even have his gun out, or seem to even have one. That was a common rookie move.

"Yeah, I had just come back from the store over there when those guys started shooting at me! And then you showed up."

"Store?" Rookie was so confused now, "There's no store in this canyon, it's just the red and blue base's, the only store I can think of is in the nearest city. Which is many miles in that direction." She pointed east of the canyon.

"What!? They told me at red base that I had to go to the store and pick up some things, they said I'll know what it was when I saw it."

Rookie understood immediately. "Look, Donut was it? I'm willing to bet those guys just said that as a prank or to get rid of you for a while. My leader did something like that to the rookie I came here with only he told him to stand guard on the flag for the next week until the General came to get it. Only there is no general, but Caboose didn't know that and he thought that you were the general when you walked in. That's why he gave you that." She pointed at the blue flag in his hands.

Donut seemed stunned, and then his confusion turned to angry annoyance. "Those jerks! Why would they do that?"

"Same reason my team mates made one of their rookies stand guard for a flag for a week. As a joke and to get rid out you for a while I bet." Rookie deadpanned.

"I'm seriously gonna have a word with the Sar-"

"Freeze!" A familiar blue leader came up from behind them.

"Not another one." Donut moaned.

"Can it Sarge-"

"I've already said that to him and he's not the Sargent, just a rookie."

"What?"

"He's not the Sargent. He's just a red rookie." Rookie explained again more slowly.

"Well how the hell did he manage to steal our flag?"

"Steal!?" Donut cried indignantly, "I didn't st-"

"3!" a dark, familiar sounding soldier shouted out as he suddenly popped out of the other end of the teleporter.

"JESUS!" Church screamed.

"THE HELL!?" Rookie yowled.

"HOLY SHIT! Who's this guy?" Donut shouted.

"What in the hell- Tucker? Is that you?" Church asked as the soot covered soldier turned to him.

"How did you get here ahead of me?"

"And what's with all that black shit on your armor?" The red rookie asked.

"Good thing I opted out of taking the teleporter." Rookie grumbled.

"Hey!" Tucker noticed Donut and lifted his gun, "freeze Sarge!"

"Here we go again." Rookie grumbled.

"Would you stop calling me a Sargent? I'm still just a Private."

Tucker took a step back in confusion, "the Sarge is still a Private?"

"No that's not-" Rookie began but was cut off again.

"Oh. My. God. The teleporter sent me back in time."

The three stared at him.

"…WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS TEAM!?"

"Look, I know you don't know me, but you have to believe what I'm about to tell you. Sometime in your future-"

"Tucker, this isn't the future. Because I'm still here." Rookie sighed, recovering from her previous outburst. Tucker turned to her. "It's me Tucker. Rookie." she said.

"…So…You're Rookie's mother from the past"

"WHAT!?"

"Tucker, what the fuck are you talking about?"

"I know this sounds crazy, but eventually this red guy becomes a sergeant, and then one day we get a tank, and he comes and steals your flag while we're distracted. And this chick," he turned to the sapphire soldier again, "she has a kid, who grows up, and joins our team. I see where she gets her looks from." He added, despite that fact he could not see her face at all.

"Is this guy a retard?" Donut asked.

"Hey!" Rookie pointed her gun at him, "We don't use that kind of term around here." In truth she wasn't sure if they did or not, but this Red rookie didn't have to know that.

"Just shut up Red." Church growled irritably before turning back to his confused teammate. "Tucker, listen to me, ya haven't gone back in time ok? And this is the guy that stole the flag; he's just not the Sargent."

"What's that noise? Rookie's voice came from the background, along with the polka music that was gradually increasing in volume every second.

"Turns out he's just some dumb rookie, who happens to have the same color armor as him."

"Um Church?" Rookie backed away from the small hill where the music was emanating from.

"He got in somehow and-for God's sake! What is that music?"

From the hill, the Reds in a horned jeep flew overhead, yowling in excitement.

"Sunnava bitch!"

"Holy shit!"

"Run!" Church screeched. Tucker didn't even have to be told, he was already running for his life.

"The Jeep must have been brought back in time!" Tucker shouted, still sticking to his crazy time travel theory.

They fled for cover behind a nearby boulder wedged on a sloping canyon wall, just in time too. The Red's opened fire with the turret attracted to their vehicle.

Rookie however, was partially hidden behind the hill directly behind them. She panted with adrenaline, watching wide eyed as the maroon soldier fired rounds after round at the rock where she had last seen her team mates duck behind, yelling insults as he did so.

At Blue Base…

"Oh man, that's not good." Caboose mumbled as he watched the scene though this gun scope, " oh my god that jeep has a really big gun.

Putting the larger gun away,, "Stay here…tank," he glance at the unused tank, "stay here ," he turned back again, "tan-"

"Get in the tank and help, moron!" Rookie's voice was barely heard above the gun fire.

"Aw, screw it." He moaned and made his way to the tank.


	4. Ruptile

Still crouched behind a boulder, two blues mused over their situation. "My god," Church groaned, "doesn't that thing ever run out of bullets?"

"You know, in hindsight, we should have brought the tank." Tucker mused.

"Hey Tucker, what good is a tank gonna do us when nobody here knows how to drive it?"

"Yeah I can see how hiding behind a rock is a much better strategy."

"Well, yeah but… oh man. I guess I gotta give that one to ya."

-Back at Blue Base-

Rookie had sprinted back to the base, intercepting Caboose before he made it to the tank. She realized before he took the tank anywhere, they were going to need a plan. Still panting with adrenaline, she frantically tried to make one up on the spot.

"Alright Caboose," Rookie pointed at the tank, "Use the tank, figure out how it works. It should have a built-in training mode or tutorial to help you. Come back me up once you get it started."

"Uh, ok! I can do that!"

Rookie ran back to the site where the reds were penning down her teammates, Caboose darted to the tank and hopped into the seat.

-Back at the site of the ambush-

Simmons fired away on top of the Wart Hog, wasting hundreds of bullets with every passing second. Grif seemed to notice this and shouted at the man, "Simmons?"

Simmons continued firing.

"SIMMONS!"

The maroon solider stopped his assault and hopped down from the truck.

"Man, that thing is loud!" Grif said to himself as he tried to focus to keep the ringing out of his ears.

"…What!?"

Unfortunately, minutes of being exposed to constant gunfire had a deafening result with Simmons.

Rookie crept up behind them, now that they had ceased using the turret gun; she figured this would be the best opportunity to make her move.

"Come on, let's sneak around the back of the rock and get them out." She could hear the orange one say.

"OK!"

"Keep it down! Jesus. Let's go, before they figure out what going on."

Rookie smirked to herself. Were all Reds this dumb? All she needed to do was make sure they get a fair distance away from their turret gun, surprise them. And then she and her team would outnumber them two to three. Then she anticipated Caboose to arrive sometime after that and the rest should be easy.

Speaking of which, she wondered how he was doing. Glancing over her should, she could clearly see the tank trapped on a protruding rock near the base. The expensive war machine turning in circles on its back wheels as its driver tried to figure out the controls.

"…He'll figure it out." Rookie murmured as she turned away again. "But just to be safe, I'll change my plans a tad bit."

-Behind the boulder-

"Psst hey, they stopped firing."

"Why are you whisperi-"

"Come one guys!"

Church and Tucker whipped around, only to see Rookie who had silently dropped down behind them, "They're distracted, let's go!"

"Did-did you come down from the _cliff_?" Church managed to sputter out.

"It's not that hard to climb up that thing." Rookie huffed. "Now come one! Caboose is bringing the tank to dispone of those two Reds while they're looking on the wrong side of the rock. We can steal their car and make a run for it back to base." Originally she was going to steal the car and drive it to her team mates, but that would have made too much noise and drawn the Reds back.

"Don't be stupid," Church snapped having regained his composer, "They're just trying to draw us out." Clearly he had little faith in the rookies to have pulled off such a plan as this.

"No they're not!" Tucker protested, looking out at the deserted vehicle, "look, they left the jeep. She's right, they're gone."

"Well-"

"It's fine!" Rookie chuckled, "Caboose has them distracted." Leaving the boulder, she peeked around and saw the two Reds staring down a tank's cannon. "I knew he'd figure it out eventually."

"I still don't know about this…" Church mumbled, "Seems kinda fishy…alright screw it! Let's go get it!"

At that moment, several things happened at once.

Church made a break for the jeep.

Rookie saw an orange soldier also making a run for the car.

Shelia auto locked on Grif.

"Firing main cannon."

An explosion rocked the whole plain, Damaging Simmons already aching eardrums almost permanently. And the car flew into orbit thanks to the missile that hit it dead center.

"Sunnava bitch!" Simmons wailed.

"SUNNAVA BITCH!" Grif screeched.

"sunnava bitch!" Church ran back to the safety of the boulder.

"Caboose! Watch where you're aiming that thing!" Rookie yelled.

"Sorry!" Came a faint reply as the tank chased after the reds, firing away. Rookie did not dare show herself, she figured Caboose, at the moment, was just firing at anything that moved right now.

"Hey dude, the jeep blew up." Tucker told his leader as he ran up to him.

"No kidding," Church's voice was laced with sarcasm, "thanks for the update Tucker." His attention went back to the tank and saw who was driving it.

"I still can't believe Caboose got the tank out to scare off the Reds."

"I still can't believe that dummy even figured out how to drive that thing, even if it has a tutorial."

Not realizing what was truly happening, Church stepped out into view. "Hey rookie good job man! Why didn't you tell us you knew how to drive the tank?"

Rookie's visor appeared behind him as she poked her head out, "I told you, it's because-"

"New target acquired." Shelia turned her cannon to the azure soldier.

"That's not a target."

Rookie perked up, listening.

"That's Church!" Sheila continued to lift the cannon higher to the boulder.

"Um, Church?" Rookie started hesitantly.

"Yeah that's right! It's me Church! What's going on man?" Church was completely unaware as to what the tank was intending.

"Uh Church, you might wanna come back over here!"

The tanked peeped. "Target locked."

"CABOOSE! STOP THE TANK!"

""What!? No! Target unlock! Unlock!" Caboose shouted desperately. "Please help me nice lady!"

"Firing main cannon."

"Uh-oh," Caboose whimpered.

"Uh-oh," Tucker looked at his leader standing out in the open.

"Oh no…" Rookie took a step, reaching out to her leader.

"What?" Church turned from Rookie to look again at the tank as realization sank in.

"Oh sunnava-"

BOOM!

Church didn't stand a chance. He smashed head first into the canyon wall, and Rookie was launched backwards in a shower of sharp rock fragments.

"Holy Fuck!" Tucker cried as he narrowly dodged his female comrade and called out into the settling dust. "Church! Are you ok? Talk to me!" There was no response from Church.

"And I'm fine thanks." Rookie growled as she struggled to pull herself up and stop her ears from ringing.

"You didn't take a damn missile to the chest!" Tucker shot back. Rookie felt herself cringe. _'No way… Church can't be-!?'_

"Church!" Tucker called out to a motionless figure. He poked his own head out and glared at the tank. "You shot Church and hurt Rookie you team killing fucktard!"

"Auto-fire sequence, deactivated."

Where Church lay, on the ground lightly smeared in red, a weak voice called out. "Tuck…er… Tucker…"

"Church!" Both rushed forward and Rookie knelt at his side. "You're gonna be ok man." Tucker reassured him. Rookie reached to help lift him. They had medical supplies back at base and it would be dangerous to leave him out in the open. She paused. There was something odd about his body. It was almost-

"No…" Church coughed and Rookie was brought back to reality. "I…I'm n… I'm not gonna make it. Tucker, there's something I need to tell you."

"What is it?"

"I just want you to know… I always hated you. I always hated you the most."

"Yeah I know you did, now hurry up and die you prick."

"…Ok. Hurg! Blaa!" And he went limp for the last time.

"…You know for a team leader he was such an asshole." Rookie muttered and stepped away from him. Tucker came to stand by her side and they both gazed in silence at Church.

"…Wanna go blow up the Reds with Caboose?" Tucker offered. Rookie turned to him.

"What the Hell, we're leaderless now. Let's go get them!"

-End of chap 4-

A/N

Ruptile Basic Def: 'easily broken' for any who want to know the meaning of the chapter title.


	5. Red and Blue (and White) Xmas Special

"Let's see…" Rookie mumbled, "Instant coffees, check… hot chocolate mix, check… marshmallows, check… portable screen projector… double check… and water and hotdogs. Oh, plus the buns, fudge and the cookies I made."

Rookie was bouncing eagerly as she marked off the things on her list. This was going to be the best Christmas ever! In truth this was practically the first Christmas she was having, or at least, the first she could remember. Thanks to the healthy shot of amnesia she received as she was recruited in the army. She was sure she must have had celebrated some holiday before, but this one was what mattered now. And she prepared everything, she spent hours of baking the Christmas themed cookies, forbidding even her team mates to come inside the kitchen and bother her. Though Church, still in his floating orb body, was thoroughly annoyed, Tucker mentioned that she would make a good housewife someday, in particularly, his. Rookie ignored this comment for the sake of the holiday good will.

Gathering together all her things and arranged them on the table, "Guys!" She shouted. "Guys! I have a surprise for you!"

She stuck her head out the base to call them again, yet her calls went unanswered.

"They must be having another meeti-"

"Rookie!"

She jumped and whipped around, Tucker, Church and Caboose were sprinting towards her.

"Oh there you are!" she said happily, imaging their response when she told them of her plans. "So I bet you were all wondering what I was doing in the kitchen."

"Not really." Tucker deadpanned as came up from the hill.

Rookie ignored him.

"I thought, in the spirit of the holidays, I've made us a-"

"Rookie, pack your things, we're being transferred out for the next few days." Church said as he floated past her.

"Can I bring my favorite gun?" Caboose asked his leader as he followed him inside.

"Caboose, you only have one gun!"

Rookie stood where was left, mouth hanging as if to finish her sentence. Her planning, all of her preparations and future fun for this Christmas, ruined by another pointless mission that must have something to do with those dumb reds.

Just then she heard Tucker calling back from in the base, "Aw, sweet! Cookies! We can take this with us and eat it on the go?"

Rookie finally relaxed her body and sighed; she hadn't even seen the reds yet and already felt exhausted.

"Here it is!" Church announced as they stomped up the last part of the slope.

The Blue Team had been walking for a little over 7 hours up the mountain side. Fortunately, they, with the exception of Church who can practically fly, were all used to walking at such hikes and made it there fairly easy and were immediately greeted with the sight of what was going to be their 'home' for the next few days.

Rookie was not impressed in the slightest.

Granted, it was bigger, had more space and overall more equipment, but in the middle of a snow covered mountain, it seemed dismal and lonely. Even worse when they quickly discovered that this base had no heating whatsoever and the only food they had was what Rookie bought and stuffed inside their tank Shelia.

"Why were the Reds even here? What was wrong with their other base in a nice warm canyon by the seaside?"

"Shut up Rookie." Church growled, he did not like this new set up either. "We are here as long as the Reds are, so let's hurry up and kill them so we can go back home."

"Hey Reds are you over here?" Tucker shouted, his voice echoing off the cliffs and though the freezing wind.

They were standing outside the Red base, where they had seen Grif and Simmons wandering around.

"All of my work…" Rookie muttered while trying to keep her teeth from chattering, "all of my plans…"

She was still sore about her ruined Christmas.

"Oh no it's the Blues!" they heard Simmons squeaky voice echo back, "How did they get here?"

"We got here because of you morons! Our Command transferred us here because you guys got transferred. And now we're all freezing thanks!"

"Oh really?" an uninterested tone came back, as the maroon solider stepped into view. "Wow, yeah that sounds bad. Sorry about that. Grif load your weapon." They heard him trying to whisper, "Get ready to attack."

"Sorry Simmons, organized combat is against 87% of my belief systems."

"Grif! We can hear you in there!"

"The whole damn mountain can hear us." A sarcastic female voice followed up.

"Just go away! Go back to you base!"

"Our base is back at Valhalla where it's not freezing."

"AND where we were supposed to spend Christmas!"

"Really Rookie," Church added, "you need to let that go."

Simmons was replay with a mocking reply, "You don't like the cold? What's the matter? No holiday sp-"

He jumped to one side with a frightened yelp as a bullet grazed the side of his helmet

The rest of the Blue team turned and stared in shock at Rookie, what as holding up her rifle and aiming it at where she last saw Simmons.

"No holiday spirit?" Rookie said in an eerily breathless voice, sending chills down all who heard it.

"I spent all of December… planning, cooking, baking, shopping and setting up the perfect Christmas party my team has ever seen... the fist I've ever had in my life as far as I know…"

"Um, Rookie?" Caboose asked timidly.

"And you…you have the audacity… to say I'd rather throw all that away, to stand out here, in the damn snow-"

"We never said that!" Grif cried out, but there was no diffusing the scorned girl with the gun.

"…to stand out in the freezing cold, talking to a couple RED REJECTS!?"

Her next wave of bullets mingled with the reds panicked screams as they fled deeper into their base for cover.

The rest of her team looked at one another and shrugged. "Screw it." They thought and joined in.

Inside the base, Simmons and Girf were sitting ducks. The orange soldier was looking out the crack in the window, before pulling back as one of Rookie's well aimed bullet whizzed through and into the far wall behind them. An explosion followed in suit.

"They just blew up our Warthog! No wait- It look's ok actually-" a second explosion. "Ok, that one got it." He called back. Simmons however was frantically trying to get a hold of Sarge on the other end.

"Crap! Rookie's coming closer!"

"Oh no," Simmons trembled, "She's gonna come in and finish the job!"

"Man, who knew girls can be so scary?"

Rookie flung bomb after bomb, fired a multitude of bullets at the base, gradually moving closer as she did. As she stopped to re-load, Simmons stepped out again.

"Guys! Hey guys, cease fire! Hold on a sec!" He cried out with all he had, noticing Rookie slamming another magazine into her gun and preparing to take aim again.

"Rookie stop!"

Rookie lowered her gun as Church and Tucker came up behind her.

"What do you want?" Tucker yelled.

"Listen guys," Simmons pleaded, knowing his and Grif's life depended on it. "I know fighting is what we do, but I was thinking it's the holidays, do we really need to be fighting during the time of year when people all around the are coming together in the spirit of brotherhood and good will?"

"It'd be good will to end you right here and now!" Rookie screeched. However, Tucker stepped up in front of her.

"Actually the only reason why we're fighting you guys if because we're trying to stay warm."

Rookie then realized that in the time she had been fighting, she had forgotten about the cold as her body worked to try and kill those who wrecked her night.

"We're afraid that if we stop fighting, we'll die of hypothermia."

"We're afraid of freezing too," Simmons called back. Grif leaned out next to him. "So why don't we agree, just for a day, to set aside our differences and work together in celebration of the season. Do you think we can do that?" He asked nervously while eyeing Rookie's rifle. "Just this once?"

A bullet suddenly hit him in the chest, "ARG!"

"Sorry!" Tucker yelled, "Had one bullet left in my clip, it seemed dumb not to use it. But yeah were down with the peace and brotherhood and whatever thing."

"We are?" Rookie hissed.

"It's fine," Tucker said cheerfully, "now you have a chance to break out all that stuff and do what you wanted to do before."

Not long after, two reds and three blues were gathered on a snow plateau under an icy overhand. They stood around a moderate sized bon fire build from wood scraps and branches. Happily eating the Christmas treats and drinking various hot beverages Rookie had heated up over the fire. Even Sheila was there, running her heaters and allowing Caboose to

"See? This what happens when we agree to work together. Nobody dies." Simmons sighed taking another drink of hot chocolate.

Grif stopped stuffing his face with cookies and fudge long enough to speak, "Just don't tell our Sargent about this when he gets back."

"That guy pretty nuts." Tucker acknowledge.

"And self-centered." Rookie added, "Who goes on vacation and leaves his team in the freezing cold to take on another army by themselves?"

"Yeah…" Caboose drawled, "We had some pretty crazy times fighting you guys over the years."

Grif chuckled, "Yeah, remember that time Sarge got possessed by that crazy AI?"

"Or, what about the time I got impregnated by that alien? Ouch."

"That's actually very normal for their kind to do that? Granted he had to lie to get your guard down…"

"How do you know this Rookie?"

Rookie looked away, "Um…" honestly, she didn't know how she knew or why she was defending that alien after what it did.

Fortunately, it was the Reds who saved her from the situation, "ah-ha, alien baby." The orange soldier snorted.

"Hey remember that time your sister crashed that ship on Donut's head?" Simmons eagerly mentioned.

"…sometimes I have trouble talking to girls." Caboose said out of nowhere. Everyone looked at him. Except Rookie who didn't seem to think it was odd in the slightest.

"Um, Caboose?" Tucker started carefully. "This really isn't THAT kind of chat by the fire. We're doing something a little differe-"

"I had a tough time fitting in at training camp 'cause I kept hurting people during practice and my Drill Sargent marked me for a trouble maker." Rookie said casually.

"Not you too." Tucker moaned.

"So, ok," Simmons piped up to change the subject. "What about that time we all got beat up by that really mean girl?"

"Are you talking about me? I'm pretty sure I beat up almost everyone here." Rookie gave them a look from behind her helmet.

"No, we mean the girl in the black armor. Where did you guys find her? She was kind of awesome." Grif said.

Rookie felt herself wince internally. Grif's innocent remark reminded of her mentor Tex. How she trained her, taught her the best fighting skills a Freelancer could offer, only to find it, while the training was real, it was nothing more than an act for Tex. A means to get a deeper trust with her team so that she could turn on them when they had the alien child Jr. An alien destoned to be a hero and savior to his kind. Tex was supposed to steal him so there her superiors could use him to control the alien race he belonged too.

"…I was never very close to my dad." Caboose said again out of nowhere. "He worked a lot."

"I never remember having a dad." Rookie said, trying to distract herself from bad memories.

"My father was a factory. I only saw him once and he sent me to war 5 hours after I was made." Shelia said.

"Ok, seriously you guys, you don't have to talk. It's not required." Tucker quickly said before the topic could take hold.

"Oh good," Caboose said, relived. "that's good."

"Happy Holidays buddy." Tucker said in a monotone voice.

"You too."

Rookie paused, "…remember when Church died and came back?"

"Yeah! I can't believe he tried to con Serge into paying him to get to the afterlife!" Tucker laughed.

"It was a good idea, he just forgot that ghosts don't have money." Grif chuckled.

"I think I saw him during the time I was momentarily offline." Shelia said.

Just then an orb flew in to view. "Hey Rookie, I got that projector synced with my body's projector, so we can watch those dumb Christmas movies you've never seen."

"Yay movies!" the other shouted. Church groaned.

-End-

-Happy Holidays Everyone!


End file.
